Global warming, the emerging energy crisis, and the depletion of fossil fuel resources such as oil have created a need for more environmentally friendly solutions to provide energy. Several ideas and technologies are known to produce energy, and to confront the challenges associated therewith, although many of these technologies are not yet available on a commercial scale.
One solution to the energy crisis is to use biomass or bio fuel to address our energy shortages. Biomass or bio fuel is material derived from recently living organisms, which includes plants, animals and their by-products. It is a renewable energy source, unlike other natural resources such as petroleum, coal, and nuclear fuels.
The use of biomass fuels can contribute to waste management. One method of making biomass more efficient as an energy source is torrefaction.
Torrefaction is a thermo-chemical treatment method of biomass at temperatures between 200 to 500° C. at low oxygen conditions (Pyrolisis). The result of this process on the untreated biomass is to produce a product that is dry, hydrophobic and easily millable with an increased energy density that burns cleanly.
The torrefied biomass is hydrophobic, has lower moisture content, produces less smoke when burnt, has higher calorific values compared to untreated biomass, and is suitable for various applications as a fuel.
Known methods of producing torrefied biomass have an overall processing inefficiency and are expensive to implement, and harm the environment by emitting smoke. Furthermore, in some known torrefaction methods such as that disclosed in United States patent application 2003/0221363, the oxygen level has to be controlled, to prevent the torrefaction product being subjected to burning.
This invention seeks to provide an apparatus and a process for creating torrefied biomass that has a high output of torrefied biomass, a relatively low initial investment cost, and minimizes damage caused to the environment during the process.